X-Men: First Class makes $120 million worldwide opening weekend

June 5, 2011 - By Liam Goodwin

Box office numbers for Matthew Vaughn’s (2D) X-Men: First Class are pouring in, and it looks set to make around $120 million worldwide during it’s opening weekend according to THR. While the actual numbers won’t be known until early next week, First Class managed roughly $56 million at the US box office and $64 million elsewhere from 74 territories.

While $56 million is a significant drop from X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s $85.1 million two years ago, it met 20th Century Fox’s estimates and grossed similar to what the first X-Men film made in 2000. X-Men: First Class was always going to face an uphill battle following the poor reception of the last two movies in the franchise, and while the cast was full of upcoming talent, it was Hugh Jackman/Wolverine free for the first time in 11 years.

With a production budget of around $140 million, making $120 million worldwide during it’s opening means First Class should go on to be a success and warrant a sequel:

“The movie really excelled in successfully launching a brand new chapter in the X-Men franchise, or new beginning if you will,” Fox senior vice president of domestic distribution Chris Aronson said.

Reviews for the movie have been excellent, and it currently has a rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Word of mouth may help First Class gain some legs over the upcoming weeks, and the next major competition (Green Lantern) won’t hit until June 17th. Next week Paramount will release J.J Abram’s Super 8, but that’s expected to make only $20/30 million opening weekend.

It’s worth nothing that Batman Begins only made $48 million when it opened in 2005 but went on to make over $200 million in the US. Hopefully First Class can achieve something similar, because it was a damn good movie and the final scene left me wanting more.